The Role of the Government in International Project Management - PMGT3857 Final Report (original) (raw)

Global projects: Strategic perspectives

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2010

Most project management research to date has developed extended theories and concepts that de-contextualize projects from their cultural and institutional surroundings. Such de-contextualization tends to highlight instrumental factors and considerations, while at the same time downplaying norms, practices, ideologies, and other cultural, institutional and psychological effects related to projects and their management. We claim that cultural and institutional variation becomes significant in relation to what we call “global projects”. These are large-scale and complex business or military ventures and engineering projects that involve participants from more than one country, and require participants to negotiate great geographical distances and cultural and institutional differences. Global projects often carry high expectations to resolve local and global ills. They have also been criticized for some perceive as managerial shortcomings. To date, little research knowledge exists on global projects. With the goal of improving project performance and increasing understanding of debates concerning ways that global projects are managed – and resolving at least some of these debates – we review in this introductory article the editorial starting points and the research articles of this special issue, as well suggest further research and draw conclusions. The introductory editorial article ends with suggestions for future research.

Key factors for management of global projects: a case study

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2011

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a case study from a large energy company in terms of what seems to influence the success rate of global projects. While the literature contains much research on success factors in traditional projects, limited findings have emerged when it comes to success in global projects. The portfolios of global projects are continuously increasing in extent, and these projects contribute highly to growth and innovation in developing countries. Understanding better how to manage such projects for best results and transfer of knowledge and economic activity to host countries is therefore a relevant direction of research. The research presented in this paper is based on data from a case company, comprising of survey data from 246 global project managers and staff as well as 30 interviews with senior expatriates. The areas pointed to by the data as most important for global project success are presented in two proposed models for global project management. In total, the two highest-ranking areas were organisational global project support and stakeholder and relationship management with the host countries and their various actors.

Managing International Development Projects

International Journal of Rural Management, 2016

The discipline of project management has got into new areas over time, but core problems like delay and cost overrun continue to be there. In the international development projects like those related to poverty alleviation, managing projects is much more complex. This article tries to understand the project management practices followed in the implementation of international development projects. Based on the comparative study of four projects—Participatory Approach to Human and Land Development (PAHAL, Rajasthan), Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) watershed projects, Rajasthan District Poverty Initiative Project (DPIP, Rajasthan) and Sujala (Karnataka)—the article finds various problems ranging from interorganizational conflicts, lack of interdepartmental coordination, fund-crunch, frequent changes in implementation guidelines, etc. Delay in progress was invariably found and progress was made through diluting quality. The main reason behind this was the dynamic nature of interven...

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

Internet: http://www.tuta.tkk.fi © Kirsi Aaltonen kirsi.aaltonen@tkk.fi ISBN 978-952-60-3344-0 (electronic) Abstract Today's international projects are implemented in institutionally demanding environments and executed by coalitions of stakeholders that have differing interests, objectives and socio-cultural backgrounds. Consequently, international projects are subject to the demands and pressures presented by external stakeholders such as community groups, local residents, landowners, environmentalists, regulatory agencies, and local and national governments. Despite the acknowledged importance of stakeholder management, project research still lacks both theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence concerning various project stakeholder related phenomena. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to project research by increasing the understanding of external project stakeholder behavior and a focal project's stakeholder management activities in international projects. The primary theoretical perspective used in this thesis is stakeholder theory, which is applied in the context of project stakeholder research.

Title Effects of Cultural Differences on the Outcomes of Global Projects : Some Methodological Considerations Authors

2007

Current project management literature with regard to global projects is dominated by a practitioner-driven approach treating projects as fundamentally similar and universal across countries even if they are unique phenomena defined by their purpose, resources, and contextual variables. This paper contributes to that literature by considering implications from cultural and institutional theory. The paper discusses how processes in global projects are influenced by cultural and institutional differences between the project participants. The paper provides a framework and methodology for studying the effects and management of cultural and institutional differences in global projects. Tentative findings based on studying multicultural construction projects in Middle East and Europe illustrate how cultural and institutional differences can lead to unforeseeable costs, time overruns and quality problems. At the same time, these differences can also be a source of creative tension leading ...

Guided by the beauty of our weapons: comparing project management standards inside and outside international development

Development in Practice, 2020

In order to identify their different knowledge areas, concepts, tools and emphases, this article compares project management standards from two non-profit, one parastatal and two governmental organisations working in international development against the standards of the Association for Project Management (APM) and the Project Management Institute (PMI). It finds that the international development and noninternational development standards have quite different ideas of what project management entails. International development standards emphasise beneficiary participation, environmental impact, gender, unintended consequences of projects, soft objectives, evaluation techniques, and cross-cultural issues more than the APM or PMI standards. The latter standards have strengths in scoping and scheduling.

International development projects by non-governmental organizations: an evaluation of the need for specific project management and appraisal tools

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2014

International development (ID) projects are pivotal in the field of international aid, but their actual impact is difficult to assess and often questioned. Focusing on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in this paper we analyse two aspects related to the impact of ID projects. The first concerns the characteristics of ID projects. We reviewed the literature to define the distinctive features of these projects. Second, we analyse the state of the art of project management processes and tools for ID projects. In particular, we verify the differences between standard project management methodologies (i.e. PMBOKw Guide and IPMA) and the methodologies specifically developed for NGOs (i.e. PM4NGOs and PM4DEV). The results suggest the need for specific managerial approaches and tools for ID projects. In particular, we show that standard project management methodologies could be complemented by specific tools (e.g. the logical framework) in order to increase the likelihood that high social impact is the outcome of the project.